Year of the Rat: every year, its element and its dates

Why the Rat comes first

The order of the animals follows the order of the earthly branches, and Zi is branch number one. A popular tale explains it differently: the Jade Emperor held a race, and the Rat rode across the river on the Ox's back, then jumped ahead at the finish. The story is told to children across East Asia in several versions; it is a legend, not the origin of the calendar, which counted years by branches long before animals were attached to them. The Hong Kong Observatory dates the use of twelve-year animal cycles for recording years to about 100 A.D.

The Zi branch also names the double hour that straddles midnight, from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., and the eleventh lunar month, the month that contains the winter solstice.

What tradition says about Rat people

Almanacs and family lore describe people born under the Rat as alert, sociable and good with money, sometimes to the point of hoarding. These portraits vary from one book to the next and from one region to another, and no study supports them as a guide to character. Read them as part of a shared culture, the way Americans read sun-sign columns, not as a description of a person. The compatibility page explains where the pairings come from.

Born in January or February?

Check the start date in the table below before calling yourself a Rat. In 1984 the Rat year began on February 2, 1984, so a baby born on January 15, 1984 belongs to the Water Pig of 1983. In 1996 it began on February 19, 1996. The sign finder settles it from the exact date.

The Rat at a glance

Every year of the Rat, with exact dates

Each line is one lunar year, from its new year to the eve of the next. Over sixty years the Rat comes back five times, once with each element: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. A birth before the start date in that Gregorian year belongs to the Pig.